Principles of Systems Science by George E Mobus and Michael C. Kalton
1. Systemness
2.Systems are pocesses organized in instructural and functional hierachies
3. Systems are themselves and can be represented abstractly as, networks of relations between components
4. Systems are dynamic on multiple time scales
5. Systems are dynamic on multiple time scales
6. Systems exhibit various kinds and levels of complexity
7. Systems evolve
8. Systems encode knowledge and receive and send information.
9. Systems have regulation subsystems to achieve stability
10. Systems contain models of other system (e.g. protocols for interaction up to anticipatory models).
11. Sufficiently complex, adaptive systems can contain models of themselves (e.g., brains and mental models).
12. Systems can be understood (a corollary of #9)-science
13. Systems can be improved (a corollary of #6)- engineering
Biophysical economics aims to conceptualize and quantify this contribution. To this end it puts energy where it belongs, i.e. at the centre of the economic process, and analyzes how the flows of energy and matter shape and are shaped by the economy’s structures and evolutions. It is based on a number of key principles:
The economy is a complex, ‘dissipative’ system
Economic processes are ‘metabolic’ in nature
Energy sources and uses impact economic structures and performances
Energy sources and resources are not perfectly or easily substitutable
Energy sources historically tend to supplement rather than replace each other
Economic growth cannot be fully decoupled from increasing energy use
‘Energy quality’ varies between resources and over time and space
The ‘net energy gain’ of energy resources and systems varies over time and space
Energy gets ’embodied’ in all goods and services produced and exchanged
Energy, money and finance are interconnected
The flows of energy and matter are interdependentNon-renewable biophysical resources are exhaustible and subject to depletion
The use of biophysical resources induces environmental degradation
